The Scottish Premiership giants will feature in the group stage of the Champions League for the second season in a row in 2017-18.

The Hoops’ opening Group B fixture is against French powerhouse PSG at Celtic Park on September 12.

Dembele is on the sidelines at the moment with a hamstring problem, having played just two games since suffering the injury during the Scottish Cup semi-final tie against Old Firm rivals Rangers in April.

Celtic manager Rodgers has suggested that the French striker, who is one of the best young players in his position in Europe, will not play against PSG.

The former Liverpool and Swansea City manager has also ruled defender Dedryck Boyata out of the clash against PSG; the centre-back has a knee problem.

“I’m not sure whether that first group game will be too early for him but it looks like it,” Rodgers told The Scottish Sun about Dembele. “He’s progressing well but what’s important is that he gets back for the remainder of the season.”

About Boyata, Rodgers said: “He has only come out on to the training pitch for the last few days and will probably be out until the middle of September.”

Rodgers’ comments about Dembele and Boyata will be disappointing for Celtic fans, as the duo would have enhanced the Hoops’ chances of getting something from the match against PSG.

PSG will head into the match against Celtic as firm favourites, and without Dembele or Boyata, the Glasgow giants are going to find it hard to win.

Meanwhile, Rodgers has defended Nir Bitton for his performance against FC Astana away from home in the second leg of the Champions League playoff tie earlier this week.

Bitton is a defensive midfielder by trade, but the Israel international was deployed as a centre-back due to injuries.

“The one player I want to mention is Nir Bitton,” Rodgers told The Scottish Sun. “I think the stuff that has been said about him has been absolutely incredible.

“I have seen people talk about what we should have had and blah, blah, blah, forgetting that we had three of our main central defenders injured and I do not have a magic wand to just spring up a centre-half.”

“I hear and I read and I see the guy getting absolutely killed, which I find unbelievable,” added Rodgers.

Subhankar Mondal

A football journalist based in Wakefield, Subhankar Mondal has previously worked for Goal.com International and Skysports.com, and has had his sports articles published in The Guardian and The Observer. He has also been on the BBC in the past and his name once found its way to the pages of the World Soccer magazine. He was recently cited in a major Louis van Gaal biography.